OK, so now it's getting really scientific (I love it :) ). So if I understand you correctly, you're suggesting to to join both the BA and the AA program, and then use BA for access to lounges and upgrades on BA flights, while using AA on intra-US upgrades?

Wow, this is very strange. Are you saying that AA discriminates its own premium members when it comes to lounge access and boarding priority?

Yes. And IMO AA's redemption scheme is generally much better than BA's, particularly for US west coast residents (gets technical re the details of Avios redemptions.)

Yes, no. Other Oneworld Sapphires & Emeralds can use Admirals Clubs on domestic trips and AA (Plat) Sapphires and (EXP) Emeralds can't. Both get boarding priority.

Now if you're both and show the lounge gatekeeper a boarding pass that has your AAdvantage no. on it, and simultaneously show a BAEC Silver/Gold card, I don't know how that would play. At the discretion of the gatekeeper I suppose.

So let's say I book an Economy flight from SAN to LHR with BA, can I still use AA miles for an upgrade to Business? If so, I may just go with AA. There are very few flights within the US where I'd need lounge access.

This still seems very odd. What is the rationale behind not giving your own best customers access to your lounge? Doesn't seem to make sense.

The way status is handed out to freq flyers in the USA it would mean standing room only (or less) in lounges if lounge access came with high status. And the revenue to the airlines with paid lounge membership

From AA:

So you'd have to book in Y or B, and your upgrade would only be to World Traveller Plus (premium economy) and not Club (business.) The cost of an AA Y economy ticket would undoubtedly be greater than just buying a business class ticket directly from BA.

AA and other US airlines have a different philosophy on lounges from most other (European, Asian) airlines. You buy a membership to the clubs and then can visit them regardless of the class of service you're flying or your elite status. There are so many domestic routes flown by AA, and so many elites, that allowing free access to the clubs for elites (or for premium-cabin domestic travelers) would probably swamp the system, or so I suspect the thinking goes. Plus club memberships are another revenue stream.

That's very helpful, thanks so much. Will have to calculate if I have enough flights planned to get top status in both programs.

One more question if I may: which of the two programs is better for getting a free ticket to Europe with miles for myself and my family? Miles & More sucks in that regard... very few seats available, need to book like a year in advance and then have to pay about $400 per ticket in fees!

Is you stay in the USA permanent or temporary (years/months)?

Nothing is free. BA have horrendous fees & fuel surcharges. And can have high UK government charges (a lot of $$ if business or first). Have a look on the AA forum for more on this. One of the reaason I suggest AA firts

Miles earning from credit card spend is useful for many

I plan on staying permanently.

Getting a frequent flyer credit card is certainly worth a thought. My experience in the past was that they are a ripoff, but will look at them here in the USA.

Hi All. Help/advice would be appreciated. Have been demoted to BA silver after years of being gold and have moved from Europe to Singapore.

I am flying to HKG a lot from SIN and realised BA is only giving me 25% of the miles in cheap Economy whereas other programs such as CX seem to pay the full 100%. However, I don't know if I fancy paying to join a FFP! So is there any other Oneworld carrier I could join to earn miles on the SIN-HKG route in low fare economy (e.g. V class)?

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: SIN
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: don't keep track to be honest as it varied, flew a lot of long haul but the move has changed that. From now on I will be doing:
1-2 times per month to HKG from SIN in low fare economy
1 per year to Europe (France) in Economy from SIN
2 + per year in J to Europe from SIN
Ad hoc personal travel
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply:
Business on long haul except for the home trip (1 per year) in Economy
Economy (restricted) on sort haul
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: I travel for both. I can choose between SQ and CX on short haul and more or less have to go with the cheapest on the long haul be it in Business or Economy
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: most in Asia between SIN and HKG
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: BA Silver - should renew it soon so will have it until Q1 2014

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: Lounge access though upgrades are handy. Baggage Allowance can be useful for personal travel but it is mostly about lounge access when traveling in Eco

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: BA, CX, SQ

Thanks a million!!

I'm on a DONE4 and I'm flying SAP-MIA-SJO-JFK-HKG-BKK-NRT-SIN-MEL-AKL-SYD-LHR-HEL within about a year. I'm OWE on BA and need to get 550TP before august 2013 to retain it until sept 2014.

So I'll probably get those 550TP first (SAP-MIA-SJO-JFK-HKG-BKK-NRT), but any suggestions which FF program to use for the rest of the trip (NRT-SIN-MEL-AKL-SYD-LHR-HEL)? In addition to those flights, I'll most probably fly MH (if in OW at the time), CX and BA otherwise also within a year. Maybe also AA one or two flights.

Deciding on AAdvantage or Lanpass
 

Ok so here I go. It seems I screwed things up as I started to accumulate miles in Lan and AA, but within their own FFP memerships. I used to be Gold on AA but now I only have 18K Miles on each program (AAdvantage and LANPASS). So yes, fool of me. Even flew 16K miles on Delta this year (aaargh).

I also have a Visa Platinum accumulating on AAdvantage, that I use on a daily basis but being based in Argentina I do not get a huge amount of miles there (say 500 miles per month). All my travel related expenses go via Amex Corp.

So, question is, should I stay on AA or LAN FFP? Can I do anything to consolidate at least from Lan to AA or vice versa? I can anticipate traveling a lot on LAN across latam, so it seems the choice should be Lanpass. But the longest travels are to US (I can easily travel 10K miles on one trip, but they are yearly) so there I use AA.

The key would be to know if I would accumulate 100% bonus miles once I get to Plat/Comodoro, when I fly on the other airline.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: EZE (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: > 50K around Latin America plus 1 or 2 trips to US. Coach (or upgrade if available).

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Economy

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Yes, normally I tend to use LAN and AA

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Latin America / US.

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: Not yet, have 18K miles in AA and around 20,000km in LAN. Have 43K million miler on AA but expired.

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: Upgrades and Lounge Access.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: LAN, AA

Welcome to the forum ^

Not many (none?) with detailed knowledge on LAN ffp post here. Hopefully others will offer an opinion

Collecting miles in one ffp would be best, but some low priced flights may not may not get miles in AA or LAN ffp if booked other as a flight with the other.

As a general rule upgrades are only available with airline miles on a flight number and operated by the airline with your freq flyer miles.

Which FFP pls?
 

hello everyone!!

i am sure you heard similar questions countless times but I gather that each case is very much individual so decided to start new thread. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated as i never posted anything on any forum in my life so behold:)

me and my gf have booked the following route to aus from london and wondering which ffp to join to get the most out of it during this specific trip as we may try to get some deals on hotels or car hire through our ffp whilst travelling. if it is not possible I think we are more into getting some reward flights. All flight booked through BA!!

BA LHR-NRT
QF NRT-CNS
QF BNE-ADL
QF MEL-HOB
QF HOB-SYD
BA SYD-SIN
BA BKK-LHR

All BA flights are S and QF are M

We are also doing one leg short haul between WAW-LHR (BA) in mid September and with LOT one on WRO-WAW if it makes any difference

Plus I will be trying to get to Poland for Xmas this year which means one return LHR-DUS/FRA/MUC -WRO with LUFTHANSA

We will also need to book some flights between SIN and BKK but have no idea how many yet

as proposed/suggested here is info:

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: LHR

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: > 25k

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Economy

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Normally BA/LUFTHANSA short haul flights within europe - economy

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: EU domestic plus if lucky once per year long haul flight. destination varies

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: not yet, i have currnelty 15k on M&M with peak of 27k

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: Upgrades and Lounge Access.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: LUFTHANSA, BA


hope i didn't forget about anything:confused:

Many thanks!!

Mikl9

This thread is being moved to the sticky thread covering FF options with Oneworld.

Gardyloo
Oneworld moderator

Are all the flight numbers booked as you listed? Or do you have BA flight numbers for all flights even those operated by QF?

Is your NRT-CNS flight a JQ flight number? If Jetstar you will not earn any points, except if you pay for the bundle that includes earning QF points (and you won't earn any crediting to BA). Jetstar is a low cost airline and not part of OneWorld (although the parent company is Qantas).

I assume you realise you will need to travel between SIN and BKK on the return..

I would credit it to BA, as QF points will not be very useful to you in the UK. Although you will only earn 25% on QF flights in discount economy when credited to BA.

If you credited to QF, you would get 100% miles on BA on the kangaroo route (LHR-SIN/BKK, SIN/BKK-AUS), and 25% for all other BA flights.

But again, having BA avios will allow you to upgrade BA flights, book BA reward saver flights, etc.

Thanks for such a prompt response!! really appreciated it as our first leg is only few weeks ahead (end of Sept):S

unfortunately the only BA codes are those: BA5 LHR-NRT BA16 SYD-SIG and BA10 on BKK-LHR. others are listed under QF flight no. And yes the CNS flight is operated by Jetstar.


what about car hire in AUS and TAS through FFP?? we will need to cover those somehow anyway as a part of our trip and maybe it is better to go for QF to save few quid on those (and lose on miles as such)? I read somewhere here that your residency doesn’t necessary mean you should go for the same continent based airline FFP

we are doing island hoping between SI and BKK so not sure how many flight (and what airlines) we have to choose from. Any general suggestions would be greatly appreciated too

btw all my flights were actually booked via trailfinder (travel agent) but appeared under "my booking" on BA website (not sure if it matters)

do you think we can double our points if we opt for household account or do they have to be separate flights?

just realised I may got the answer to one question but already managed to ask seven more..ooopss;)

Not quite sure I understand what you mean, do you mean you want to try and book your car hire with points/miles? Seeing as you won't have many posted (or any at all) by the time you land, this isn't a good idea. And it is a bad use of points/miles anyway.

Also Tasmania is part of Australia...

You will not really have any OneWorld partner options for island hopping, I would just go with the budget SE Asia carriers like AirAsia.

Err.. No. It will just combine your points. You will each need to be a FF member and put your own numbers down. Household Accounts are for BA only, QF doesn't have anything similar.

Really, your best option is to credit to BA. I have just moved to the UK from Australia and am switching to BA Executive Club as having Qantas FF points is not really any use unless flying on QF metal.

Unless you are thinking of coming back to Australia again and using Qantas points to book domestic airfares, you will end up with about ~32k Qantas points total from your trip combined (16k each). BA you will earn a fair bit more.

I was more thinking whilst booking if we quote QF FFP in TAS we may get better discount than if doing the same with BA Exec

Assuming we go for BA...is it beneficial for us to open household account assuming? just wonder if for example we will move up in BA hierarchy quicker (bronze, silver) if we both put our miles together against one rather than two cards, so we can both access lounges or get better deals on hotels/ car hire? is it too good to be true and there is no way we can achieve that using those flights:(

You will not get any discount quoting a QFF number for any hire car companies.. Avis and Hertz can credit points to QF and BA as well, although its not many so if you can get a cheaper hire car from someone else thats what I'd do if I was paying out of my own pocket.

Household Accounts only combine avios, not tier points which are used to determine status. So no. There are pros and cons about setting up a HHA, plenty of info on the BA forums. Good news is you can do it down the track when/if you want to combine your avios.

QF nor BA will get you better deals on hotels or car hire fyi, no matter what your status.

New to OW
 

I soon will be moving to Australia from the US and am trying to decide on the best FFP for my travels (predominately business related).

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: GLT
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: >50K
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Can choose airline, but am generally limited to economy, as travel is for work.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Majority of flights will be Transpacific, as well as, throughout Oceania.
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: N/A
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: Travel upgrades and lounge access
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: I assume this would be QA, given the location.

Thanks for any help!

Will you been doing much travel within Australia or mainly international?
And will more of it be Oceania or Australia-USA?
And by Oceania do you mean within Asia or to actual Oceanic countries? (Pacific island countries).

If mainly domestic travel in Australia, your main choice is between Qantas and Virgin.
If mainly international travel, then you would need to work out what carriers fly to the main destinations you will be going to.

Can I ask what business you are going in to? Gladstone is mainly a mining town..

Welcome to the forum ^

Is the relocation to Aust permanent or temporary ?
If temporary & USA is home American Airlines [AA] is a option
Qantas is QF

No mining in Gladstone. Is a large coal port, some other large processing industries and several large gas terminals being built on Curtis Island, near Gladstone. Is a very industrial town.

Yes I have been there many times.. There is no mining in the town of Gladstone but it is the centre of mining in the region, so I and most people would call it a mining town.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: SIN
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: 25k-50k (closer to the 25k end)
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Leisure. I usually choose the lowest price so always fly economy.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Most often is SIN to Europe, then SIN to US, then SIN to Japan
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: No
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: good award redemption rates. The rest are not as important.
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: No particular preference

I just used up all my miles on Qantas, so I was wondering if I should take the chance to switch to a different OW FFP because of the news that Qantas will no longer be flying SIN-FRA next year (please correct me if I'm wrong!).

Thanks a lot in advance!

I am new to OW. Based at YYZ and usually *A and got CX diamond from Amex. I do occasional AA or BA flight <10k a year. I want to use points for long distance flight to Asia or short haul in US, which is the best program (CX, BA or AA) to credit my occasional flight?(I can top up from SPG or MR transfer)

AA undoubtedly ...

AA is unquestionably better long haul to Asia. Flying short haul to the U.S. is better on BA if you fly non-stop or are flying two short flights. For instance, YYZ-ORD and YYZ-JFK are only 4500 Avios each way. With connections things start to add up as you have to pay for each segment on BA--YYZ-ORD-XXX (w/i 649 miles) will run you 9000 Avios each way.

With only ~10K miles/year I would probably pick BA and use it for my SH flying. Picking AA for a long haul award you might be booking 5+ years in the future (or more for business class) seems pretty speculative in the fast changing world of airline FF programs.

Hi folks. Hoping for some help selecting a oneworld program. Currently a UA flyer but I'm relocating from SFOish to MELish, and *A seems to be fairly useless out of Melbourne (unless you really like going to Bangkok, Singapore and Auckland) so I'll probably be going for oneworld.

Right now I'm an AA platinum thanks to AA's overly-generous status-match offer from earlier but I haven't requalified for next year; not sure whether I'll be soft-landed to gold or not. I've been a QFF member long enough to have a six-digit membership number, but I've never managed to obtain any status and have a mere 575 lifetime status credits. I'd like to have some kind of oneworld sapphire status in the longer term.

Right now I fly ~50,000 miles a year, probably going to continue to do something similar but on a different continent. Let's say three longhaul return trips a year to the US and Europe, plus a bunch of domestic Australian flying, particularly MEL-SYD.

All my own travel is booked in cheapest-available economy, and while I don't know the details of my new employer's travel policy I think my work travel probably will be too :(. So I don't think Qantas Frequent Flyer is going to make any sense for me since status credit earning is seriously stingy for cheap fares.

AA seems like the obvious choice since it's a mile-based program, but as far as I can figure out from reading the rules it's pretty mysterious and opaque whether you earn miles or not on any given QF flight. Is there a best-practice for maximising your AA miles while flying on QF/CX/BA?

I'm not really familiar with any of the other oneworld programs, but is there one I should be looking at?

Other alternatives include (a) trying to figure out something weird involving flying DJ domestically and crediting to NZ/SQ/DL or (b) saying "bugger it", buying a Qantas Club membership to get most of the benefits of oneworld sapphire, and relaxing.

Welcome to being future MEL resident ^
Is the move permanent or for a defined period of time ?

/ off topic
As a Melbourne resident you need to select an Aussie rules football team to support: this is compulsory :)
Today is AFL grand final day. Sadly my team is not playing
/on topic

As post 1 what are your expectations / requirements from a FFP ?
Upgrades / lounge access / rewards ?

MEL LAX 1 return = 15842
MEL LHR 1 return = 21006
MEL SYD 20 return = 17560
Total miles 54408

As you have AA status suggest put your QF flights to AA. But some low price fare buckets are non earning to AA [check carefully]. Put these to QF.

For short haul MEL-SYD will take many flights to get QF status. Will you do this every week ? If you are traveling long haul in business or first on OneWorld airlines its a different consideration. Then may be worth trying for QF status. Will you have choice of long haul airline ? The QF EK arrangement may benefit you if the destination is other than LHR.

Do you intend to put miles from credit card spend to a freq flyer program ?

Forget crediting DJ flights to NZ. NZ is a poor freq flyer program

Many business's have discounted QF club membership. Many companies pay for this for depending on your level in pecking order . Possibly same for DJ club access.

Thanks Mwenenzi! Actually I'm from Sydney originally but am a Geelong fan from way back.

I suppose my priorities are the ability to earn/burn miles for trips, and lounge access. Upgrades aren't so important for me. In the US I really enjoy the other perks of status (priority security/checkin/boarding) but now I come to think of it these things don't matter nearly as much in Australia where security, checkin and boarding seem to work more efficiently. Well, maybe not checkin.

I think my new employer does indeed have corporate rates for Qantas Club membership; I found some references to such a thing existing on the internet though not any of the details. I don't think I'd pay full price for Qantas Club membership, but for typical discounted rates I'd definitely do it. Qantas Club membership doesn't give all the perks of oneworld sapphire, but it probably gives enough of 'em to make flying bearable.

After thinking about it a bit more, I think what I might do is to fly Qantas domestically with QF Club membership but stick with *A for international and acquire membership in one of the "easy star gold" programs like Asiana, which requires only 40,000 miles every two years. It seems easier this way, and it'd be nice to have some degree of status whether I'm flying *A or oneworld.

Jorgen
For earn/burn AA is a lot better than QF, especially as you start with AA plat status (OW sapphire = QF gold) which helps in your QF earn. Just look at burning charts & co pay fees. But reward flights on QF are hard to find at times

For many pax here in Aust priority boarding means staying in the QF club and boarding last.

The Cats need another dedicated supporter (good you do not support the Swans)

Good points Mwenenzi. I'll credit my QF flights to AA by preference unless I wind up in a non-earning code in which case I'll credit them to QF. (Though my AA platinum ends very soon and I don't know whether they'll soft-land me to gold or not.) Meanwhile, I'll join OZ with a view towards crediting my future *A flights there and hopefully keep *G in my back pocket. Exact details can be figured out once I'm more familiar with my new employer's travel policies.

Thanks for your help! ^

AA will soft land you to gold.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)

CDG, Charles de Gaulle, Paris.

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)

>50k, economy

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)

Cheapest economy for holiday trips.
Flexible economy, economy+ tickets often bought or changed at last minute when travelling for work.

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?

Unfortunately economy only.
Intercontinental work trips, short European trips for pleasure.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)

2-3 times a year from Europe to Asia and within Asia (China, Japan, SEAP, perhaps also Australia in future) for work.

Frequently between Paris and Helsinki, Finland.

Many short holiday trips in Europe.


(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)

-

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)

1. Good awards
2. Upgrades

(8) Preferred Airlines

I assume that AY and CX will be most frequent.

Berlin but unsure if AB will be safe
 

(1) What is your home airport?
Reply: TXL from Jan (or BER then)
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
Reply: 50k-100k, Eco
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Travelling for business I can choose the airline
(5) Which routes do you fly most often
Reply: BER-LHR every second week, BER-EWR every quarter, BER-FRA frequently
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
Reply: Still Gold at LH; Silver at AB; Platinum at AF
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: upgrades on travel and prio services
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Not Air France!

Note: The obvious choice so far has been AB, but with the recent Etihad and AirFrance move I am starting to consider this. I could imagine it would be better to use AB as carrier, but with a BA FF card.

New to this business as I'm going to relocate from DUB to KIN in January for at least two years.

Think my decision is really between AA and BA. I'm expecting to have minimum one (possibly two) round trips KIN-DUB per year. In 2013 I hope to have a round trip to either MEL or SYD, and then a number of shorter hops to the likes of MIA or JFK.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: Will be KIN, Kingston, Jamaica
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: Expect to be 30k at least in 2013. Similar, maybe sightly lower in 2014.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Economy - Usually discount, occasional Y.
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Should have free rein most of the time but will be booking economy in almost all cases. Some DUB trips (going on my first journey out there) may be booked by work - they seem to favour DUB-LGW-KIN routing with BA.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: As above, most long haul trips will be transatlantic, ultimate destination DUB. There will be short trips to US east coast a few times. Other long haul destinations (such as Aus 2013 are possible but won't be regularly repeating any of them)
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: No status. Very small time non-elite DL and UA member.
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: Upgrades most important (got a taste of DL International Business Class on an overbooked DUB-JFK flight once and want a repeat on long hauls!), chances to redeem miles for upgrades and/or flights next most important. Other perks are nice to haves.
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Neutral - haven't flown AA or BA before.

Being located in FRA and flying mainly within (Northern) Europe I have been a loyal *A member for some time. Now I need to fly to XRY which *A doesn't serve very well, so I'm need some advice on which OW programme I should join.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: FRA
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: 25-50k
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: eco
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Within limits. I travel for work (and I don't consider it a pleasure). I can suggest connections, but my employer organises the tickets. Only Y.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: (Northern) Europe, occasionally TATL
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: None at OW, but an A3 *G
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: Since I probably shall continue to fly *A and enjoy the perks there, my OW programme should offer good conversion possibilities to other programmes, e. g. HHonors, PriorityClub.
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: No preference.

Thanks in advance,

swedenabroad

Assuming that your longhaul tickets are all full fair economy or economy plus, and your shorthaul leisure trips are on AY/BA primarily, I would go with AA. My understanding is that they don't enforce a minimum AA metal requirement, and you will earn 100% EQM for all your flights, provided your CX flights are booked in flexible economy or premium economy. AA has a good earn/burn rate and 50K/year will get you AA Platinum = OW Saphire.

BA only awards 25% avios on most AB discount economy, so I would probably stick with AB unless you are flying in flexible econ. Additionally, BA status is awarded by Tier Points, not miles, so make sure that you have enough tier points coming to qualify for Silver (and that you will meet the minimum 4 BA operated or marketed sectors).

I would definitely go with AA. 25k+ gets you AA Gold (OW Ruby). BA qualification is on Tier Points, and you would probably not get the 300 TP required for BA Bronze.